Erasing pleasure from public discourse on illicit drugs: On the creation and reproduction of an absence

Moore, David

doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2007.07.004

Cited by 157 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Rather than being seen as part of a community, neoliberal subjects are entrepreneurial and competitive. This view of the self has various implications for harm reduction: dislocation of the user from their community or society; over-emphasis on rationality at the expense of pleasure (Moore 2008); and the portrayal of the addict (and by extension, drug users in general) as one who has misused their free will by making a bad-that is, irrational and irresponsible-choice.…”

Section: Harm Reduction: a Brief History Of An Ideamentioning

confidence: 99%

Harm Reduction or Psychedelic Support? Caring for Drug-Related Crises at Transformational Festivals

Ruane

2015

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Many of the EDM events known as "transformational festivals" provide psychedelic support spaces: volunteer projects caring for festivalgoers undergoing difficult drug experiences. Mostly drawn from the festival community, many volunteer carers ("sitters") subscribe to psychedelic culture discourse which frames these substances as aids to personal growth if handled appropriately. However, within the dominant paradigm of international drug prohibition, support projects must employ the contrasting discourse of harm reduction in order to gain access to events, visibility to festivalgoers, and integration with other support staff. Harm reduction, a paradigm for the care of drug users which began as a grassroots heroin addict advocacy movement, has since become associated with neoliberal, medicalised views of drugs, drug users and the self. This article considers how psychedelic support workers negotiate this discourse dichotomy in the course of caregiving, within differing national and local drug policy climates. Early findings are presented from ethnographic fieldwork as a psychedelic support volunteer with three organisations at seven festivals, combining participant observation and in-depth interviews with nineteen support workers. Events in the UK, the US and Portugal were studied due to these countries' contrasting policy regimes. Points of conflict between the psychedelic and harm reduction discourses were found to create tensions both within the support organisations and in their relations with on-site medics, security guards, festival organisers and police. The findings suggest that mainstream harm reduction discourses may be a poor fit for psychedelics and that risks inhere in their adoption by festival support spaces, such as abjection of drug users in difficulty which may create a trust-damaging divide between users and workers.

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Section: Harm Reduction: a Brief History Of An Ideamentioning

confidence: 99%

Harm Reduction or Psychedelic Support? Caring for Drug-Related Crises at Transformational Festivals

Ruane

2015

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“…Por tanto, los datos ofrecidos solamente son útiles como aproximación para conocer cuáles serían las motivaciones más comunes para el inicio al consumo de cada droga. Estas tendencias en la evolución resultan acordes, primero, con el progresivo descenso de la prevalencia de consumo de opiáceos -que podrían relacionarse en mayor medida con las motivaciones «sintomatológicas» 6 -y, segundo, con el incremento de las llamadas «drogas de la fiesta» o «del baile», como serían la cocaína, el éxtasis y las anfetaminas, que diversos autores relacionarían con una búsqueda controlada de placer y de trasgresión (Duff 2008;Measham 2004;Moore 2008). Más aún, la mención del placer, la experimentación o la búsqueda de libertad y trasgresión son también el reflejo de la aparición de valores sociales emergentes, más permisivos con actitudes hedonistas y de disfrute, propias de las sociedades de consumo desarrolladas (Measham 2004).…”

Section: Resultsunclassified

(Des)motivación y drogas: un análisis de las campañas de prevención en España (1987-2007)

Olmos

Moreno

2013

Rev. Dialectol. Trad. Popul.

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“…Sin embargo, aspectos subjetivos como el placer, raramente son incluidos en los debates públicos sobre el tema, en tanto el enfoque metodoló-gico hegemónico ha eliminado del discurso la corporalidad, lo histórico y lo cultural por considerarlos temas frívolos o poco científicos. Las consecuencias que esto ha traído en términos de investigación son devastadoras y se pueden evidenciar en el claro distanciamiento entre el saber científico y el saber colectivo, lo cual trasciende de igual modo, la manera como se formulan las políticas públicas en el tema 59 .…”

Section: Conclusionesunclassified

El consumo de drogas en el debate de la salud pública

Otálvaro

2016

Cad. Saúde Pública

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Erasing pleasure from public discourse on illicit drugs: On the creation and reproduction of an absence

Cited by 157 publications

References 15 publications

Harm Reduction or Psychedelic Support? Caring for Drug-Related Crises at Transformational Festivals

Harm Reduction or Psychedelic Support? Caring for Drug-Related Crises at Transformational Festivals

(Des)motivación y drogas: un análisis de las campañas de prevención en España (1987-2007)

El consumo de drogas en el debate de la salud pública

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